The Crisis
The famous pamphleteer Thomas Paine, wrote “The Crisis” in December of 1776, as Americans entered the second winter of the Revolution. It’s opening paragraph starts with these epic words:
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
The “summer soldier and sunshine patriot” were literal: George Washington’s Army was encamped for the winter in Morristown, New Jersey. His victory in Trenton (the battle after the famous crossing of the Delaware River) occurred two days after “The Crisis” was published. The war would stretch four more long years until the final victory at Yorktown.
American Winter
American history has several times when it seemed crisis had no end in sight. The Civil War winters of 1863 and ‘64, the Great Depression winters of 1932 and ‘33, and the World War II winter of 1943 all tested “men’s souls”. And historians will look back at the decade from 2015 to 2025, sadly – the “Trump Era”. They’ll see it as a struggle to determine what view of the American Dream we will follow. 2024 is the pivotal year of that era.
Like the Civil War, both sides today lay claim to American history. Those that follow Donald Trump harken back to the patriots of the American Revolution just as much as those favoring Kamala Harris. Both sides claim the flag and the trappings of American tradition and lore. And one side will win out; at least in terms of the vote count in November.
But it will take more than an election to consolidate a new foundation for the United States. We thought it was over in 2020, with the Pandemic election of Joe Biden. But here we are again, four years later, caught in another alligator “death-roll” struggle to determine the American dream. These truly are, “The times that try men’s souls” – and women’s too.
He that Stands
A decade ago, there is no possible scenario that would put someone with the ideology of former Congressman Liz Cheney and I on the same side of a political argument. Judge Luttig, the national “model” of a conservative jurist, would never have a spot on “my side” of the table. Nicolle Wallace, was the Bush White House press secretary and senior advisor to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain. She supported those that I campaigned against.
They have all “stood up”, against their former political party and for what in their lifetime has been the “opposition”. They all see Trumpism as such a threat, they are standing for Democrat Kamala Harris. Trumpists derogatorily call them “RINOS” (Republicans in Name Only), and they all have paid a steep political price. They have lost lifetime friends. But in these times, in this struggle to determine the American Dream, they stand against Trump.
But there are two individuals who recently joined the fray, that shocks the soul. This morning Alberto Gonzalez, the Bush Attorney General who supported torture as a means of extracting information from terrorists, came out for the Democrat. And, last weekend, the “Darth Vader” of the Republican Party; the man perhaps most responsible for the misdirected war in Iraq and the privatization of American intelligence gathering that led to the excesses of Abu Gharib, now supports Kamala Harris. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of Liz and one of the pillars of the “old” Republican Party, is now on “our” side.
Bedfellows
In normal times I would have to consider: if Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez, and the rest are on the same side I’m on – am I on the “right” side? There is politically almost nothing that we have in common, except, for a vision of a Trump America that ends our American Dream. And that’s enough.
Shakespeare in The Tempest wrote: “(M)isery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.” We Democrats awaken today in bed with – Dick Cheney!! There could be no better proof that America is in an “existential struggle”, an “alligator deathroll”, for the nature of the American Dream. It’s made many of us swallow hard to accept the alliance of these opponents of decades duration. But, as Paine put it, “Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered”. We need all the help we can get, whatever the source.
Alberto, Dick, welcome to bed. It’d be nice if you could convince your friend George to climb in too, to join his good friend Michelle. We all make “strange bedfellows”, but a powerful alliance against Trump. Remember: “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
